Reform of the Telecommunications Act seeks to re-privatize radio-electriical spectrum


The amendment to the Telecommunications Act, driven by the right wing bench in the National Assembly, seeks to re-privatize the radio-electrical spectrum to control the broadcast media from the private sector, said the president of the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel), William Castillo.
When interviewed in the “El Desayuno” (The Breakfast) program, broadcast by Venezolana de Television, he denounced that this instrument, which has serious defects of unconstitutionality, was drafted by lawyers of the 1BC, Phelps and Belfort groups, in order to break all the legislative effort.
The reform also seeks to censure the President of the Republic, by restricting the duration of the mandatory joint nationwide broadcasts, and to impose fines in a case of excess; It also includes the elimination of community media, he added.
Castillo said that Venezuela is one of the countries with the highest levels of freedom of expression. 67 out of 100 radio stations are in private hands; almost an 80% of the radio-electrical spectrum is controlled by private television stations; and the television by subscription system or cable is operated by individuals, with a minority public participation.
“In Venezuela the private sector has the fundamental control of the mass media” and the State assumes the task of regulation, which has pretended to be positioned, through disinformation campaigns, as an act of “censorship that violates the freedom of expression, when what is being defended is the right of the people to have accurate and timely information”.